If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit. Banksy
Who’s the crazy one?
If people are indeed so bad, why would you create the possibility for them to end up in positions of power where they can cause immense harm? And then complain when these bad people, who are not angels, abuse their power? In that case, who’s the crazy one? Read more ⟶
Censorship on social media will rise sharply
On October 16th 2024, O’Keefe Media Group published footage of Jeevan Gyawali, a senior software engineer at Meta, discussing how Meta censors information on their social media platforms (among which Facebook and Instagram). According to Gyawali, anything they dislike is automatically demoted by their algorithms, resulting in reduced reach. Read more ⟶
It’s better to be alone than to wish you were. Unknown
Lysander Spooner on the origin and purpose of legislation
A few weeks ago I came across some writings by Lysander Spooner published in 1882 under the title “Natural Law; or the Science of Justice”. Specifically section three of chapter three caught my attention because it contains a lot of insights that I had to come to myself over the course of a few years of my own research and experience. Read more ⟶
Plato on participating in politics
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors,” is a quote often attributed to the Greek philosopher Plato. In all the instances I’ve seen so far, this quote is used to motivate people to take action themselves and actively participate in politics. Read more ⟶
[The high-minded man] must care for truth more than for what men will think of him, and speak and act openly. He will not hesitate to say what he thinks. […] honour is what high-minded men are concerned with; for it is honour that great men claim and deserve. Aristotle
On “lie machines” and “digital crime”
I can still remember vividly when Curtis Hofwijks burst into laughter at the Dependence Square in Paramaribo, when I told him for the umpteenth time that my Facebook account was blocked again for a while. It was during the period of 2015–2016 when I supported him during his protests against the policies of the robberment, led at the time by Bouterse. Read more ⟶
The dangers of recycling phone numbers
I recently purchased a new SIM card from a local telecom company in Suriname. I was assigned a ‘new’ phone number with this SIM card. After inserting the SIM card into a phone, I installed WhatsApp and tried to activate a WhatsApp account with the ‘new’ phone number. To my surprise, another person’s profile picture and status text appeared in ‘my’ WhatsApp account after activation. Read more ⟶
The December 8 trial: Food for thought
For everyone who is directly or indirectly involved in the December 8 trial or is interested in it and has an opinion about it, I offer this as food for thought. Read more ⟶
Killed by Vaccination
I recently came across the book “Killed by Vaccination” written by William Young. It’s currently downloadable for free via the website of the Wellcome Collection. It’s a book written all the way back in 1886, but much of the information and the situations discussed in the book are still relevant today. Read more ⟶
One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again. [The more you study the past, the further you can see the future.] Thomas Sowell
Why Surinamese people are ‘suddenly’ dropping dead
In various Surinamese media, there have been reports for some time now of cases where people ‘suddenly’ collapse and die on the street, even while driving. Read more ⟶
That which you most need will be found where you least want to look. Carl Jung (paraphrase)
Anarchy and chaos
The word ‘anarchy’ has its origins in the Ancient Greek word ‘anarchos’. ‘An’ means ‘without’ and ‘archos’ means ‘ruler’. So anarchy literally means “without ruler”. This can be compared to the word ‘monarchy’, which means “one ruler” (‘monos’ means ‘one’ or ‘alone’). Read more ⟶
If working hard made you rich, donkeys would be covered in gold. French proverb
Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. Friedrich W. Nietzsche
PayPal gave us a glimpse of what’s coming
If you’ve been paying attention to what happened a few weeks ago with PayPal, you’ve seen a glimpse of the dystopian future that awaits us. Read more ⟶
Sex was an expression of friendship: in Africa it was like holding hands… It was friendly and fun. There was no coercion. It was offered willingly. Paul Theroux
The Cause of BIID: Sexual Suppression
A paper published on December 16th 2014 titled “Body integrity identity disorder (BIID): How satisfied are successful wannabes” by Sarah Noll and Erich Kasten took a look at how satisfied people suffering from BIID are after surgery, where they intentionally choose to remove a perfectly healthy body part. Read more ⟶